Modern Day Religious Manipulations

Monday, August 17, 2015

So sometime recently my mum came to meet me, and said one pastor said everyone in my family should come together and pray for three hours every night for one month or so. She said something like the theme is ‘moving forward.’

So we looked at each other, and burst into laughter. I said three hours?

How are supposed to gather EVERYONE for THREE HOURS, EVERY NIGHT?

She said she told the person it won’t be possible, that she will pray what she can pray, and tell me, so I can do the remaining, since I pray for long hours every evening, anyway.

I asked my mum. “So, if we don’t do up to three hours, God will not answer our prayers?”

Needless to say, this was where the conversation died.

I have come to the level where all these ‘spiritual manipulations’ disguised with good intentions on the road to breakthrough don’t move me one bit anymore. I have too much experience for all that crap to work on me. If you find yourself been bounced around by all these hullabaloo, even as a Christian, it is not because you are bad or weak. It is just a sign of a troubled and restless spirit.

Trust me, I have been there.

Gone are the days when religious manipulators came in celestial white garments, and ask you to drink and bathe in holy water. That is just old school. No one would ask you to go to bar beach again. Fashola and Tinubu have reduced their market with the whole Eko Atlantic Beach thing. The 7 Broomsticks-beating times are over, as it doesn’t appeal to the elite. It is a whole new game now.
The spiritual manipulators of these times are very cunning. They are in every church, and they prey on the weak and troubled. And they can catch anybody, no matter how strong.

Here goes my own personal experience.

There was a time in my life when everything around me was crumbling. I lost things most important to me, and I basically thought I could not move on without recovering them. I was weak, tired, and just wanted my life to be over. This is that period in your life when your friends and family just keep looking at you and praying for you to recover because they know there’s basically nothing within their power they can do to help you get back up again. Even my pastor kept praying for me and encouraging me. Still, it wasn’t enough. I wanted a quick-fix solution.

That’s how I went to look for trouble when I agreed to see one of my aunt’s pastor in a redeemed church. She said he’s a prayer warrior, and very effective. I went to see him. In fact, the drama in the church that day made me laugh so much that I immediately wrote this post, The God of Visas, and blogged about it. Read it here. Anyway, I finally got to meet this pastor. I should have suspected him because it looked he was just a worker in the church. He immediately scolded me for questioning God, and asked me to start fasting again for 21 days (I had just concluded a personal fast). He said he will be sending daily prayer points, bla bla.

After about 10 days, I sent him credit because my aunt said I should send him credit since he is sending me prayer points. I sent him 1500 twice in the period of 21 day. Even though a text message costs N4.00, it was nothing to me. I mean he was specially interested in me, right? Never mind that I already had hundreds of prayer points and declarations I had prepared for myself. After all, I was the one looking for fast solution.

Anyway, after the 21 days was over, this pastor will call and pray for me well, and ask me to send him credit. The first time, I did it, but with raised eyebrows.

One morning of a week day, he called me and asked him to send him credit. Unfortunately, I was in Nnewi, in a remote area. The company my firm had sent our team to go and clean up their accounts temporarily lodged us in one of the CEO’s guest houses, and we were surrounded by bushes. So I told the pastor I couldn’t get credit, explaining the situation of things to him.

He kept insisting I go out and buy the credit, or find someone to send to get the credit, because he doesn’t understand how someone like me won’t have access to credit. I was irritated, and immediately decided to cut him out of my life.

I stopped picking his calls, apart from one time I picked by mistake because he called my second line.

I told my aunt what happened, and she apologised saying she didn’t know he was like that, and would report him in the church.

So these are the signs of such people

They are very manipulative, starting and ending calls with prayers God did not send them to pray for you. They never run out of prophesies.

They will usually send you prayer points, and tell you they are praying for you too.

They will make you dependent on them totally. This is a strategy, because if things begin to turn around for you, you will always attribute it to the fact that “That pastor can pray o. Ha, he is a powerful man of God.” And then you will eventually turn the pastor to your God, and start giving him whatever he asks for.

If you meet any pastor who doesn’t encourage you to study the word yourself, and find God yourself, RUN!

They usually don't have any full time job or full time ministry, and prey on mostly the working class society.

Most times, they are formulaic/numerical in their approach. Fast for 21 days. Pray by 6pm and 11pm everyday. Pray for 2 hours. Shout Hallellujah 7 times for 7 days at the 7th hour. They lack creativity, and their approach doesn't give room for the Holy Spirit to do His thing, seeing He cannot be confined to formulas and numbers.

They are in every church, EVERY CHURCH - Catholic, Pentecostal, Celestial, Redeemed, Winners, Baptist, CAC, Methodist – you name it, you will find them there.

Beware of them. I believe I was able to see him for who he was because I was already strong spiritually before I got into trouble, but only got caught in my weak moment. Some people are not so lucky, and end up being lifetime victims of the greedy posers in the kingdom of God.

On the flipside, don’t stop going to church because of these wolves in sheep's clothing. See my reason below

Well written! I like this post very much.Hmm, I don't want to talk too much, ok, scratch that! I want to talk plenty o!I too have passed that stage for any god of man to come with his abracada formula to tell me how and when to pray! I grew up believing certain hours are the best time to pray to get prompt answer from GOD. Is GOD not OMNIPRESENT? DID HE NOT SAY, BEFORE WE SPEAK, HE ALREADY KNOWS WHAT WE WANT TO SAY? AND OUR PRAYERS SHOULD NOT BE LONG, WITH REPETITIOUS WORDS, BECAUSE WE BELIEVE THAT IS WHEN WE WOULD BE ANSWERED? When the HOLY SPIRIT prays for and with me, it is straight to the point, precise without too much grammar!.

But our god of men are showbiz men! What else can they use to capture their prey so as to milk them dry? Have they finished praying for themselves? TAAA! They come up with different strategy to give the illusion of really praying as if GOD'S WAY AND THOUGHTS ARE SAME AS OURS! The disciples asked JESUS to teach them how to pray ... simple principle to follow ... thank GOD, ask for forgiveness of sins and make your request known. Full stop! There are days I talk with my creator and not pray. I lay out the burden of my hearts like when confiding in a friend. It helps me a lot. That is my own way of letting go of my hurts and worries.

I once watched an inspirational movie and the hero made this quote; The Lord hears the whispers of our heart more than the sound of our voice'. I was so touched, and realized how true because, HE knows our every thoughts and motives, so HE can hear our 'cry' before we let it out. This is one of the things like about Monks, they have learnt to mediate deep in silence than making a raucous noise with prayers. I was in the prayer band when in school, and we would be told to open our mouth and shout out and pray, and I was like, is it not GOD we are talking to? Why shout at HIM? I cannot shout at my own earthly father when making a request, rather I will be persuasive and speak quietly with respect.

When going through a trying period one is very vulnerable, it ONLY takes the grace and strength of GOD for one not to be tempted to follow the path of the fake men of GOD, for a quick fix solution. May the good LORD who parted the red sea for prophet Moses and the children of Israel, always make a way for us also, AMEN!

Lol. I love reading your long posts o. I was even waiting anxiously for it. God really does hear the whispers of our heart, I agree 100%. Even caucasian christians who don't shout receive answers to their prayers.

Amen to your prayers. The vulnerable state is not where one wants to be.

Thank God for grace to know what is right. My pastor will always emphasize it that you are the first prophet of your life and if a so called prophet gives you a word that doesn't agree with your spirit biko don't do it. So it is very very important we test all words and spirit.

Truly gone are those days when anyone will faze me with 'visions'. I can see too so can I hear and feel God. Praise God.

Sometimes the money they ask you to pay is either for the transportation they may need to get to yours or to cater to the prayer warriors they come with- it's not a babalawo kind of exchange like, "bring so so amount and I'll make things go well for you", there's normally a very reasonable reason but with an unreasonable amount that isn't commensurate to the reason it's being asked for.

@Berry: No, they don't put it that way. They don't ask you for money for prayer, in such a direct manner. They ask for credit, transport money, donation to one particular project or the other, so many things. Many people are not so gullible to start paying for prayers.

@Dido: Thanks for dropping by. You are very right. They have many ways to scheme the money off people.

This post caught my attention. ATL, there is no better way to say this. Until we stop being Church-goers and become searchers and doers of God's word, we will continue to fall for these sheep in wolf's clothing. I have come to realise that it's those who are desperate and need 'indomie miracle' that fall prey. Plugging our cables in the wrong socket or power source always cause a bad accident. The subconscious conscious turning our attention from God to man for miracles is a misnorma.

Madam, thank you for this. It is very easy to fall prey when things are not running on rails as expected. In addition, our cultural inclinations have seeped into our faith. Traditionally, we believe that certain people are custodians of the gods, so we transplanted the notion to Christianity. Anyone can fall prey. Even the bible says "take heed lest ye fall". It is important to know and do the will of God for ourselves. Easy to say, difficult to do. May God help us all.

Word baby girl word! Lol ignore the baby girl but you are so right! The bible said we should ask for anything we want in His name it doesn't say we should ask people to pray for us but there still isn't anything wrong with that as long as we acknowledge they don't have the answers! Thank Godnfor wisdom! I wish more people will seek God for themselves too!